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luca venezia, a. k. a. drop the lime, is reigning badass among the likes of kid606, knifehandchop, and other digital cut-up artists ripping up the back catalogs of early dance music imprints like xl and suburban base - taking wicked samples from the heyday of rave culture and other sources, cracking them wide open, and pouring everything from industrial noise to acid breaks into the mix. venezia has been musically inclined since youth, made mixtapes in elementary school and going bananas when rave broke in the us in the early 90s. now based in williamsburg, venezia pushes the boundaries of breakcore with the humor and sarcasm that went hand-in-hand to create rave and early techno’s dark side, playing up the seedy underside of an originally urban music that was as much a reality-check as it was drug-fueled escapism. previous drop the lime releases on tigerbeat6, dreadpower/electroviolence, shockout, broklyn beats and ambush have garnered intense press scrutiny in the last year, but no one’s prepared for the break madness on step it up. from the lead-off title track, which begins with the synth choir sounds from either 'blue monday' or underworld’s 'dark train' (we’re not sure which it is and venezia’s not about to tell us), step it up barrels through six tracks of ricockulous, unrelenting break layering and sampling mash-up. on 'clockman,' the vibe is very much in tune with 4hero’s dark raver anthem, 'mr. cook’s nightmare,' peering through mournful female cries and bleepy lfo notes to roar on with a raucous ragga bass pulse. the tone gets even more morose on 'lost bklyn,' where classic spiraling d’n’b bass tones get a menacing industrial treatment, or on 'bullyhead,' which out does the horrific minor chord tones of that seminal kemical kids white label from 1993. step it up is nothing less than a red glowing poker in your brain; drop the lime recklessly cauterizes the memory of happy hardcore with speedhall heat.